What A Conference!

Leslie/Todd: We had been preparing for years, literally, for Reciprocity 2011. We only have these global microfinance conferences every 3-4 years, and this was the first we held in North America. We wanted our guests to experience "heavenly hospitality" while being encouraged spiritually and learning a lot about how they could empower the materially poor more effectively. With such extremely high expectations, it would have been easy to come away from the event slightly disappointed.

Such was not the case with Reciprocity 2011! As high as our expectations were, they were exceeded with the event! What made it so special?

• Great preaching. While all speakers were excellent, Reverend Oscar Muriu from Nairobi Chapel in Kenya was exceptional. He spoke on unity, the body, mustard seed faith, sin (when's the last time you heard a message on sin?!), partnership, simply following Jesus, and coming off of the mountaintop into the valley. All were powerful and provided what conference attendees needed most -- being refreshed in their commitment to follow Jesus and encourage others doing the same.
• Great teaching. The highlight here were the intensive seminars at the end of the conference, led by Professor Ron Chua from the Asian Institute of Management. All of our microfinance partners identified steps they can take to better achieve their vision/mission of empowering the materially poor.
• Fantastic fellowship. Imagine gathering with 140 brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world 15+ countries) with a conference theme from Romans 1:12 that is focused on encouraging one another. We had a preview of heaven just in being together and remaining focused on Jesus.
• Wonderful worship. Our conference band was excellent - well-prepared, extremely gifted, and very sensitive to God's Spirit, but what made Reciprocity 2011 worship that much more special was how well the band integrated worship leaders from around the world. We were thus also led by Africans, Asians, Latins, etc. singing their own music, not just singing ours, and gained new experiences in worshiping God.
• Sufficient free and fun time. Reciprocity 2011 was not a conference where we ran from one session to the next. We intentionally created plenty of free and fun time for folks to interact with each other. One of the highlights was a phenomenal Kopano World Cup of Soccer (which we hold at every global microfinance conference) in which Team Eurasia finally edged out Team Africa after three overtime penalty kick sessions! And who kicked the winning goal for Team Eurasia? Duza Baba, a Nigerian! Now THAT's reciprocity!

The REAL highlight of the time together was God choosing to visit us with His Spirit. He seems to choose to do that when brothers and sisters in Christ gather from around the world seeking to extend His Kingdom. We thank God for blessing us with an amazing summer.

The next time we'll do this, Lord willing, will be 2015 in the Philippines with the central theme being "celebration". This will be a celebration of Old Testament proportions as we rejoice in how God has moved in our midst to transform the materially poor and non-poor! Stay tuned for more details as the year approaches - we'd love for you to join us in the celebration as well!

Celebrating Our Volunteers

Leslie/Todd: Once a year, we take time out to say "thank you" to our volunteers. They really are an amazing bunch of people. Susan Tavilla and Sandy Smith host and go "over the top" in making our volunteers feel special. Saturday, July 2 was the big day this year. Click here to see some of the pictures from the event.

We recently calculated that PEER Servants volunteers have given approximately 100,000 hours of their time in service to the materially poor and donated and/or raised $2.5 million. Perhaps now you understand a bit better why we celebrate them and thank God for them as much as we do!

Meet the 2011 Lydia Award Semifinalists

Leslie/Todd: One of our personally favorite PEER Servants events of the year is the Annual Lydia Awards Celebration. It focuses on the stories of transformation of the entrepreneurs served by our microfinance partners. We are always challenged and enriched by the Lydia Award nominees and the passion they have for pursuing what God has called them to. Yet again, God is using them as an example to us. If they can pursue the passion they sense God has given them and do so from a much more financially precarious position than you or we may be in, then how much more we should be willing to do the same. If we're not, perhaps we're letting our riches or something else hold us back from experiencing all that God wants for us.

We just announced the three 2011 Lydia Awards semifinalists. You can read their full stories on our website and vote for your pick for the 2011 Lydia Award winner. This is our more personal take on their passion.

Sara, from South Africa, has a passion for children. She started a creche back in 2006 in a "building" from some loose materials she could find. It wasn't pretty, but it allowed her to open her doors to 15 children. In stepped our South African microfinance partner, Aloga, and a few loans later, Sara has a 6-room brick building employing five others and taking care of almost 100 children. Is she in it for just the money? Consider this - she actually doesn't take fees from parents who lose their jobs, and she'll take their kids to church (when her creche is otherwise closed) if the parents have to work on their day of worship. That's passion!

Florence, from Uganda, has a passion for helping those with overwhelming obstacles. She knows something about that herself -- widowed with five children in northern Uganda and a physical disability. But Florence is a woman of prayer, and she knows that with God living through her, she is more than a conqueror. She's established a very successful secondhand clothing retail/wholesale business that offers her customers affordable clothing, has enabled her to employ two others, and gives her profits that she uses to bless orphans with HIV/AIDS. She even plays the drum in worship -- Florence definitely marches to the beat of a different drummer!

Juana, from Peru, has a passion for family. She's done everything she could to keep hers together after her husband abandoned her with three children. With the help of Kallarisunchis, our Peruvian microfinance partner, she started a hardware business. Now, a few loans later, she has three small businesses. Juana very intentionally established three businesses so that each child could inherit a business. She is teaching them how to do business well while using the proceeds from the business to support her local church. Juana loves business, but even that falls short of her passion for family!

We have the great privilege of being able to pursue the passion God has placed on our hearts to establish an organization, PEER Servants, with a vision to enable tens of thousands of the materially poor and non-poor to experience economic, social, and spiritual transformation. We've given up some things to do it, but received so much more in return.

What's your God-given passion? What steps are you taking to pursue it?

A Great CCT Donors Forum

Leslie/Todd: If you have followed PEER Servants much, you know that The Center for Community Transformation (CCT) is one of our most transformative microfinance partners. They serve over 130,000 of the materially poor in the Philippines and do it with the gospel being front and center. We are really honored to partner with them.

In May, we were able to host the second annual CCT Donors Forum. Ruth Callanta, Founder and CEO, joined us along with two senior staff -- Froilan Parado (who heads up their External Relations office) and Pastor Jun Gonzaga (who heads up their spiritual development efforts). In addition to CCT and many folks associated with PEER Servants, representatives from endpoverty.org, Five Talents, and HOPE International joined us as well. It was a fantastic opportunity to hear the current very inspiring vision of CCT and to discuss further how we could work together to support them in their vision.

This gathering should be a sign more and more of things to come. The church in the developing world is taking the lead. God's Spirit is moving mightily among them, not only in their growth (which is much more sizable than we see in the North American church), but in their depth of commitment to follow Jesus at any cost. They will then invite us to partner with them in areas wherein we can strengthen them and be strengthened by them. Certainly our material wealth is one thing we can bring to a partnership; our effectiveness at planning and thinking strategically may be another. What can we receive from the partnership? Mentors to help us make Jesus, not material well-being, security or stability, the central focus of our lives. We like to sing about giving our all to Jesus, but how many of us are really living that out? (As Dr.Erwin Lutzer of The Moody Church in Chicago points out - "oh the lies we often sing about behind the hymnal"!) God is raising up our materially poor brothers and sisters from around the world to help us see the true path of following Jesus. Certainly we have seen that path more clearly through our partners at CCT. May we take on the humble mantle of a servant as we see the footsteps of Christ and seek the power of the Holy Spirit to have the courage to walk in them.

Music to our Ears

Leslie/Todd: What was the highlight of April 2011? The inaugural Concert for Economic Empowerment. April 2 was the night. We had a wonderful evening of worshipful music by a great band (thank you Rich and Sue Musacchio for pulling all of that together) and a group of 100+ that lifted their praises to God while donating almost $10,000 to empower the materially poor. It was an evening rich in blessing, and one we will build on in the future. Music is one more means through which we can communicate God's concern for the materially poor. In future concerts, we plan to have bands/musicians representative of many more places in our world, so that the Concert for Economic Empowerment will allow all who attend to come to a greater appreciation of how God is worshiped around the world. Stay tuned - we think this event could become one of significant impact in the years ahead!

April had another highlight as well - a Uganda Dinner/Movie Night hosted by one of our Team Ugandan volunteers. 20+ folks gathered in their home for delicious African cuisine, watched an inspiring Ugandan movie ("War Cry"), and donated $1,140 towards the costs of our CAFECC/Uganda reps coming to Reciprocity 2011.

While both of these events raised funds, neither of them were fundraising events, per se. They were events wherein we could realize our PEER Servants' vision of witnessing economic, social, and spiritual transformation among the materially poor and non-poor. The Concert allowed attendees to understand more about how concerned God is for the materially poor and worship Him for His great love. The Uganda Dinner/Movie Night sent many home from a real fun evening having had authentic African cuisine for the first time and understanding a bit more of northern Uganda. The funds raised at the events put us a bit closer to carrying out our mission, but the transformation effected at the events puts us a lot closer to carrying out our mission.

Bigger Steps for the 2011 Walk

Leslie/Todd: If you have followed us throughout the years, you may recall that we have our Walk for Economic Empowerment in the fall. So why are we talking about it already? The Walk is growing, and it's not just a fall event anymore!

This year the Walk for Economic Empowerment will take place in 4+ locations -- Boston (September 17), Charleston (April 16), Chicago (October 1), and Columbus (May 21). What's up with the "+"? Because that's where you can have your own small Walk right where you are! Gather a few friends, family, church members, or whoever, choose your course, and have a funfilling day empowering the materially poor in the name of Jesus. You can easily create your team, prepare your own Walk webpage, and quickly contact your friends encouraging them to support you. Check out our "Walk Where You Are" webpage, the bigger Walk website, and the Walk video below.



If you can't walk but would like to support Todd is his Walk, contribute via his giving page. All of Todd's funds will be used as matching funds to what other volunteers or our microfinance partners raise, so you'll be doubling the impact. And 100% of what is raised goes directly to one of our microfinance partners to enable them to grow their microfinance program.

We're excited that there are 6 other Christian international development agencies taking part in the 2011 Walk. Check out the Walk website for full details.

Won't YOU join us in this year's Walk?!

Namaste, India!

Leslie/Todd: We were very excited that the PEER Servants board approved the Christian Service Society (CSS) of Kolkata, India as our 10th microfinance partner. As Todd noted in the October 2010 post, CSS, is an impressive organization. Under the humble and very effective leadership of Executive Director Himadri Munshi, it serves 10,000+ of the materially poor in the outskirts of Kolkata with loans that start smaller than $25. It has a very dedicated staff and high quality clients that faithfully repay their loans, allowing CSS to not only be sustainable, but actually generate a surplus. The surplus is invested in two children's homes -- one housing 25 boys at risk and the other 50 girls at risk. The love of Christ is witnessed very clearly through their work.

What does PEER Servants hope to be able to bring to CSS? First, insight that will help them more effectively tell their impressive story to the outside world and attract greater resources so that they can realize their vision to serve 25,000+ clients. Second, technical consultancy services that can help them operate more efficiently. Third, access to a network of other indigenous Christian MFIs from which they can learn and contribute to the learning of others. Our ultimate desire is that through this partnership, CSS will be able to more effectively communicate the love of Christ to the people of West Bengal, and PEER Servants volunteers will be able to more effectively communicate that same love of Christ to their North American neighbors.